Fulfillingness' First Finale: Stevie Wonder's Somber 1974 Album of the Year

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Released in the summer of 1974, Fulfillingness' First Finale was the fourth album in Stevie Wonder's classic period and followed the outward-looking Innervisions with a somber, inward record about spirituality, heartbreak and mortality. Wonder, then 24, played acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes, drums, harmonica, clavinet and Moog bass himself, working with associate producers Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil and their room-sized TONTO synthesizer. Guests were chosen for specific textures: Paul Anka on Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away, Minnie Riperton and Deniece Williams on Creepin' and It Ain't No Use, and Sneaky Pete Kleinow on pedal steel.

The record still mixed reflection with commentary. They Won't Go When I Go, co-written with Yvonne Wright, has no drums at all, just piano and choral-style synthesizer. You Haven't Done Nothin', a pointed criticism of the Nixon administration during Watergate, set its message to a clavinet funk groove with the Jackson 5 on backing vocals, and it reached number one on both the Hot 100 and the soul chart. At the 1975 Grammys the album won Album of the Year, the second of Wonder's three wins in that category within four years.

The album held number one on the Billboard pop album chart for two weeks.
It topped the soul LPs chart for eight non-consecutive weeks between October and Christmas 1974.
James Jamerson played upright bass on the piano ballad Too Shy to Say, where a Moog bass would have overwhelmed the song.
Bird of Beauty includes a section of Portuguese lyrics contributed by Sergio Mendes.
Boogie On Reggae Woman, with Rocky Dzidzornu on congas, reached number 3 pop, topped the soul chart and won best male R&B vocal performance.

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